On Friday, Dec. 3, Bob Kolb Jr., age 80, passed away in his home in Carefree, Arizona. Often referred to as "Mr. Monday" by his close friends, many will likely remember Kolb as the 1960s poster boy for Ford's Total Performance and "Win on Sunday, Sell on Monday" marketing campaigns.
Kolb's life centered around the automotive retail business. He was the dealer-principal at White Plains Ford in White Plains, New York; Bill Kolb, Jr. Ford in Blauvelt, New York); and he and his wife Maryann were dealer principals at Bill Kolb, Jr. Subaru in Orangeburg, New York. Kolb also spent time building, racing, and marketing specialty cars.
Come 1963, Kolb campaigned a factory 427 Lightweight Galaxie, and in 1964, a 427 Fairlane Thunderbolt Super/Stock in the Northeast states. Both cars were sponsored by Larsen Ford in White Plains, New York where he was employed as high-performance sales director. Kolb’s next drag racing venture proved to be more effective as a sales tool than previous super/stock racecars. It was more entertainment than Eliminator! Enter the Little Yellow Wagon, a raucous 427-powered “billboard” capable of running the entire quarter-mile on its rear wheels.
Kolb joined the ranks of wheel-standing exhibitionists with his ’65 Ford Econoline pickup. The group was headed by Bill “Maverick” Golden who, driving his Dodge Little Red Wagon, pioneered the genre. The Little Yellow Wagon was powered by a Hilborn-injected 427 side-oiler built by Tasca Ford’s John Healey with an engine mounted on a sub-frame behind the cab.
In 1975, partnered with longtime friend and top tech, John Sachs, Kolb purchased the dealership in Larsen and renamed it White Plains Ford. White Plains Ford was one of the top-performing stores in the New York District between 1975 and 1981.
While he was vice president of Ford’s Car and Truck Group, as a close friend to both Carroll Shelby and Lee Iacocca, Kolb, at Iacocca's direction, set up a unique Shelby dealership within Gotham Ford in New York City. That Shelby dealership was the first dealership within a dealership, selling and servicing only Shelby automobiles. During this time, Kolb also became a member of Ford's Dealer Council for Performance cars. He was the only salesman to be a part of this group. Afterward, he was hired to be the national spokesperson for the Shelby dealer network.
Between 1965 and 1970, while working at the Larsen and Gotham Ford dealerships, Kolb sold more Shelby Cobras, GT Mustangs, and GT40s than anyone else in the country.
In 1984, Kolb became a manufacturer. The company was called Spoilers-Plus and Kolb produced aerodynamic styling and ground-effects kits for slow-selling vehicles such as the Ford EXP.
A master at building and marketing specialty vehicles, Kolb kept his decades-old connection to Ford alive with his Tungsten Grey and Heritage model ’06 Ford GTs. He drove them as long as he could before health issues got in the way.
Kolb is survived by his wife, Maryann Kolb, sister, Rommy Revson, son, William (Bill) Kolb, III, and nephew, Nathanial Hunt.
